Back in May of 2013 the gaming community at large went on the warpath against Gamer Girls Magazine and its creator Ray360. A magazine devoted to girls who played games according to its creator, but more appropriately a magazine that catered to fapping 14 year olds with pictures of models doing the most awkward things you could imagine with a controller in their hands. In all my 37 years I’ve played a lot of video games and I can say with some certainty that I’ve never played upside down with my feet over the topside of a couch. Nor have I ever put on my best boxer briefs and seductively splayed myself over my coffee table to play video games. In an industry where women are always fighting for respect this was the last thing it needed. In light of recent events such as GamerGate in which many women were targeted in hateful attacks it’s more apparent than ever that the type of objectification offered up by Gamer Girls Magazine is more harmful than ever.
Well internet… you might have won this round! After the first article went live exposing the magazine and a following interview with the creator (which really didn’t help further his cause) that might have been the last we’ll ever see on the magazine.
“I don’t always play video games but when I do it’s in booty shorts while splaying myself over my coffee table.”
Perhaps it’s just me but if you’re going to create and then try to promote a product it probably pays to be honest with your potential audience. Ray360 dug himself quite the hole being caught in a bold faced lie about his so called gamer girl models. In an interview over at VentureBeat he alludes to his models being actual gamers and that in no way is this meant to be an exploitation of gaming culture for cheap spank bank material. One example he gives is one Shannon Chase, a tester and developer for Nightingale Games. After about 30 seconds of research we were able to surmise the following:
- There is no such thing as Nightingale Games (Go ahead, GOOGLE IT!)
- Shannon Chase is actually a glamour model (nothing wrong with that, let’s make that clear)
- She goes by the pseudonym stage name of Bella Nightingale
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out how Ray here came up with his lie and unfortunately dropped some verbal diarrhea for the world to read. It would go to show that these kinds of business practices are detrimental to your success pal.
“Nightingale Games you say? Please Ray, tell us more. We’re captivated… by your lies!”
The last time Gamer Girls Magazine’s Twitter feed was updated was way back in September of 2013 so with any luck it’s the last we’ll ever see of this trash that does more to denigrate the culture of gaming rather than foster its success. After hitting the net in May with issue number one we’ve yet to see number two and we can only hope it stays that way.
In this humble writer’s opinion we are, or should be at the very least, a culture of acceptance and equality. There are certainly some closed minded opponents of this (BECAUSE ACTUALLY IT’S ABOUT ETHICS IN GAMES JOURNALISM) and something like GGM certainly would seem to further their cause rather than mine (or ours if you happen to agree with me!). Good riddance I say.